Is Cold Calling Really Dead?

I’m hearing more and more proponents these days of the belief that cold calling is dead. A host of modern-day teachers and guru’s are preaching that prospecting via the telephone is an old ‘technology’ and should be discarded in favor of email and other modes of more indirect, and perhaps safer, communication. The validity of their claims has yet to be proven. Before you jump the telephone prospecting ship, it is important to understand the reasons behind moving away from direct human voice contact with your prospects. Understand that I am not doing my own preaching against other modes of communication. It is just as shortsighted to reject new methodologies without recognizing and acknowledging their value as it is to discard existing technologies prematurely without knowing why. In the end, a craftsman is a master of his or her trade because of the diversity of their tools. Our profession is no different. Let’s not throw a valuable tool out of our tool box before we’ve learned to use it properly.

It is certain that some are turning away from cold calling because they aren’t good at it. Many were never taught the art of cold calling and therefore struggle from lack of effective training and coaching. It is a difficult tool to figure out on your own. Fear is an ongoing factor for many of us. Are these legitimate reasons for claiming that cold calling’s time has past? Let’s not leave a very effective tool behind because of our inexperience and discomfort.  Ultimately, this is far less an issue of what is comfortable. Isn’t it much more an issue of what works, of the most effective path to more appointments, referrals, and sales.

Although we’d all love for sales to be easy, many aspects of it aren’t. Cold calling is one of those that isn’t. This is no news flash to any of you. It takes the right training, practice and patience to develop the skills necessary to recognize cold calling as an art. When you get there, the power of telephone prospecting is much easier to see. Cold calling becomes another tool of your trade. Most of us are not born salespeople. Whatever proficiency you’ve gained has taken hard work and practice. The same is true for cold calling. It is a skill that is developed over time. The learning curve is much shorter if you seek out quality training methodologies. Without guidance, cold calling is a difficult skill to learn on your own. As I said before, some of the folks that are ready to bury cold calling as a means of prospecting never had the benefit of good mentoring. Do yourself a favor and learn the art of this powerful tool before you follow those that may not have.   

Since 1990 I have had the privilege to teach thousands of salespeople the art of prospecting with outstanding success. The bottom line is this; if you are in sales, prospecting is how you put new people into your pipeline each week. Corporations large and small, regardless of their success, never stop stop prospecting. Some of your leads will come from referrals, a natural warm market, advertising, centers of influence, network groups, associations or a variety of other sources. Some of these calls are going to be easier than others but the truth is if you’re prepared, if you’re practiced at scripting your calls and if you are diligent about learning from and building on your mistakes, telephone prospecting will become as second-hand as anything else you do well. Although some believe that cold is dead and gone, from our perspective it is alive and well!